5 MSN/Yahoo/GTtalk/AOL/IM Etiquette tips

I use an IM (instant message) clients every day, I use it to support people and talk to my friends and family. It can make things a lot easier and its less formal then a phone call but it has its downsides. People don’t know how to use it properly and it can become pretty annoying if use improperly.

I have created a list of a few of the things that I have found annoying when using an instant message clients. Feel free to add any that you find annoying too.

Links with no pretext - I will often get a single message from someone that is just a link that they think I should check out. No description of what it links to or if its safe for work (SFW?). I ignore these types of messages mainly because of the spread of Goatse.ex type websites. Give me a hint about what the links is about before you send it to me.

Delayed thank you responses - Someone will ask a question and I will respond with an answer, 10 mins later after I have closed the IM window and restarted my work they will ping me back saying 'thank you it worked'. This is a waste of my time and it interrupts my work. I have to stop what I am doing read your thank you message, close the window and try to recover my train of thought for no reason. I assumed that my solution worked, if you ran in to problems you would ping me back with a question, and a question is worth my time. Only tell me when things go wrong.

Over use of :) ;) :D LOL - Its one of thous things that I just can't stand, when someone uses 5+ emoticons in a message. I see the reason why you would use one but not 15 in a row. 1 emoticons is ok 5+ is not.

Getting angry when I don't respond - I work on my computer for a living and most of the time I will turn on my favorite IM client while I am working. Sometimes I just get too too busy to respond right away, or I walk away from my computer or I just don't want to talk to you right now. If you don't get an immediate response, try to figure it out for yourself or wait 1hr or so before trying again. I'm much less likely to respond to someone that send me a message every 5 mins 'are you there yet?, are you there yet?'. Instead of constantly pinging me to check if I am there, try phoning me, email me or waiting an hour.

Message with no meaning - When you get a message from someone that make no sense or is out of context and you find myself asking 'What is he trying to say to me' its irritating. Instead start every session with a good first message that gives a little bit of a back story. Instead of saying 'I figured it out, its 75' you should say 'I figured out that problem I was having last week with the CAS server, I had the temperature set wrong, it should have been set to 75'

Comment with some of the annoying things that you get with IM clients.